A PREVIOUSLY undetected issue with the Poultry Cross means that the recently restored monument needs additional repair work.  

It only reopened at the end of last month after 10 months of work, after the Grade I listed structure was damaged last year by a car that crashed into it while the driver was fleeing from police

Following a joint effort by the D&N Construction team, stone masons, architects, structural engineers, scaffolders and the City Council, it was thought that the Poultry Cross has been returned to its previous state.

The stone masons from Salisbury Cathedral dismantled and rebuilt the south buttress which contained the damaged area. During dismantling,individual stones were recorded and the stones that were undamaged or could be restored were numbered and used in the rebuild.

But now a new defect has been found, which is still a part of the impact damage sustained at the time.   

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A structural engineer has indicated that a previously undetected fault located above the damaged buttressing pier needed temporary strapping, but a more permanent repair is required.

A small section of the Poultry Cross will have scaffolding and this will be erected on Thursday, April 20.

Final work on the higher part of the monument will take two weeks to complete and will commence on Monday, April 24.

Additional conservation work on the lower parts of the monument is planned for 2024/2025.

The cost of the first load of repairs as a result of the collision totalled £84k. It is expected that this will be covered by insurance. The additional conservation works costed £30k.

Brandon Luke Gamblin, 20, of Chamberlayne Road, Eastleigh, was charged with a string of driving offences after the incident.

He was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court on Monday, September 5, for dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, driving while disqualified and without a licence, and criminal damage.

Gamblin received a concurrent jail sentence of eight months, which was suspended for two years. He was also disqualified from driving for three years with his interim disqualification taken into account.